Perhaps one day I will write the book with this title that has been languishing in my book ideas file for years now. Just in case I never get around to attaching it to this potential book, I will use it to Segway into my story.

It happened some years ago when I lived on the island of Jamaica with my very young children. We had been recently married and in the throes of setting up our marital home. My lovely house had many, many windows which faced my neighbors and the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean Sea. Therefore, I needed curtains for privacy and for beauty. However, we had very limited income, and After calculating the costs of these curtains, I realized we could not afford them. Being a dutiful Jamaican wife and homemaker, I cast about desperately for a way to solve this particular problem.

So, I prayed. I told the Lord that I knew he was God of the universe, and I realized that my request was frivolous in comparison to all the very big things with which he was occupied. I knew it was a small thing but if He could spare some time, I would like some gold curtains. They were the perfect match for my décor.  I completed this prayer and forgot about it.

Some months later I visited with my mother in law. She was a queen of a homemaker who kept her house impeccably clean and fabulously decorated. During the Saturday afternoon visit, she asked me if I wanted some gold curtains. Surprised and very thankful, I asked why she made this offer. She replied that someone had brought her some new ones and as she was taking down her gold curtains, she thought of giving hers to me. Being the faithful and faith guided Pastor she was, I knew I could tell her about my prayer which the Holy Spirit brought back to mind at that moment. I was confident that she would understand very well how a faithful God could answer the frivolous prayer of a desperate housewife for Gold Curtains.

Not only were these gold curtains in excellent condition, but they were the exact amount I needed for my many many windows.

It was through this experience that the Holy Spirit reminded me how valuable my prayers were to Him. While I would have understood perfectly if God had deemed my requests for gold curtains too trivial to attend to, He told me that it was precious to Him because it was important to me. He brought back to my mind Jesus’ declaration that said down to the very hairs on my head were important to Him, so much so that he counted them (Matt. 10:30, Luke 12:7). The Holy Spirit then pointed out that if He could supervise the fall of little sparrows which were worth very little in the marketplace (Matt. 10:29-31, Luke 12:6-7), of course he would watch the very tiny little things that concerned me in my daily life.

This experience stuck with me. Up to then, I believed that only certain issues should be brought to God in prayer. These certain things were more spiritual ones such as: sanctification; growth and maturity; mine and other people’s life’s major crises; and big macro matters affecting the destiny of nations. I honestly did not think it was particularly spiritual firstly, to bring these trivial little matters of my home decoration to God, nor other inconsequential “life struggles such as a broken fingernail. Secondly, even if I had dared to take them to Him, I did not necessarily expect Him to give them the time of day because they seemed so vain and foolish

The Holy Spirit’s central point came through shining, golden and clear like the sunlight filtering through my beautiful sea facing Gold curtains which I had gratefully hung at my windows.

While I am far away from the island, and have long since left that home and those gold curtains behind, I have made it a point of duty to bring the little things which preoccupy my mind to God in prayer. I strive to include especially those niggling matters which, though seeming unimportant, can make or break my current life’s activities or ruin my day. I have found that this act of surrendering every little issue I can think of to his ministration and supervision helps me to keep in perfect peace. Offten I recall Isaiah’s declaration that:

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” (Isa 26:3 AV)

 God, through Isaiah, has reminded us that He will Keep those of us whose minds are stayed on Him in perfect peace. This peace is amplified by the fact that I have found the peace that passes all understanding in addition to the other benefits of this reliance on God for the minor as well as the major issues of life:

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Php 4:7 AV)

Now when all hell breaks loose, I find a calm assurance and stillness in the knowledge that Jesus’ promise of peace that passes all understanding is being realized in my heart.                         

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Php 4:6-7 AV)

Of course, I am not perfect and there are days when I get off track and resort to my very human and habitual state of stress and worry. After I have run on for a while, to remind myself of God’s faithfulness, I go to my living room, stand at my windows for a bit, then I reach out and gently, lovingly run my hands down my – yes, you’ve guessed it – my new, very luxurious gold curtains.

Learn More about Spiritual Growth and Maturity from:

Sproul, Wendy. 2017. March to Maturity: Grounded and Built. North Charleston, South Carolina. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

“Wendy, do you ever cry?”

I shook my head, “no”.

“Learn to cry, it’s cathartic. It’ll relieve your stress” he recommended

Ever since then I cry when I am sad or just overcome with the issues and challenges of merely living. I go to my praying place, sit before my Lord and weep. If I can articulate the things which press me down I tell Him as bluntly and as unpolished as I feel. When My crying is over, I wash away my tears, pull myself together and get back out into the fray.

People around me have been known to comment that they never see me down or depressed, not like others. Of course, I get depressed and sad I tell them. What they do not know is that I have learned to cry as per my doctor’s advice so many years ago.

What I can tell my friends now is that when I cry, inevitably my thoughts wander to settle on two things. Firstly, I imagine how others who are encountering the same challenges must feel and how difficult the human conditions can be. This reminds me that I am not alone and that others encounter the same hardships to. Somehow that lessens the feeling of aloneness and places me as part of a whole company who share similar pain and distress. When I feel most frustrated and facetious, I remind God that He knows, through His son Jesus what it is like to be human. I bring to the fore those troubles and afflictions we constantly face and how frail and helpless we feel when we encounter them. I petition for relief if that is in His will. I almost always use the reference from Hebrews 4:15 to bolster my argument.

“For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15 AV)

Secondly, while I am going through this mental exercise, my mind inevitably strays to the things I can be thankful for. I begin to enumerate them, starting with the most immediate and my most favorite blessing: life, food, family, sanity; good health and the list goes on. For some reason this exercise constantly kicks in when I begin to ruminate about the things that make me sad. Perhaps this occurs because I frequently recall the words of a hymn we used to sing in devotions when I was a little girl:

“When upon life’s billows you are tempests tossed,

And you are discouraged thinking all is lost.

Count your blessings Name them one by one,

and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Chorus:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings see what God has done,

Count your blessings, name them one by one

and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Then again, maybe it is because I have taught my kids and practiced the habit of giving thanks for at least one thing every night before we go to bed. If we can’t find at least one thing for which to thank God, I remind them that there is at least one thing about a bad day; it will end, and we don’t have to end with it. It nearly always cheers them up after they have faced their bad days.

Whatever the reason, this reaction is inevitably triggered and by the time I am finished the tears dry up and glimmers of hope and optimism restore my emotional balance.

So now the secret is out. I am tough as nails and ferocious in life’s battles for all those who know me. But that’s because I cry when I need to.

Reference

Oatman, Johnson (1897) “Count Your Blessings”. Story behind the Song Count Your Blessing. Published 2014.

http://www.staugustine.com/living/religion/2014-11-20/story-behind-song-count-your-blessings

VisitedOctober 8, 2018